The Delaware ledger. (Newark, Del.) 1879-19??, 1887-02-05
Home Duties of Girls.

1t is agreed on all sides that our
American girl should be taught how
to keep house. One Of the most
sensible articles on this subject is in
Good Housekeeping. The writer
says: at is by no means necessary
to keep your daughter in the kitchen
half the time to accomplish these
results, nor is it essential that she
should be skilled on her marriage
day in every kind Of cookery, and
be able to get up a first-class dinner
ON short notice. This should not
be expected any more than that she
should 20 to the blackboard and
unerringly demonstrate the forty
seventh proposition Of Euclid three
or four years after she has graduated
ut some excellent seminary, But
the elements of domestic knowledge
should be thoroughly mastered, and
u suitable amount of practice given
in important details: The intelli-
gent girl will know how to apply
such knowledge when the proper
time comes.
The natural imitativeness of chill
dren is to be made available, which
the mother who herself looks after
the ways of her household will find
an easy matter. "The little ones
like to be useful, if they see others
about them useful; they like to fol-
low the mother about the house un-
der pretense of helping, though
often hindering her; they enjoy using
their little hands about something
that older people do; in fact, to work
until false notions are instilled into
their minds. Most young girls de-
light to have some small household
duty committed to their care; and
if this disposition should be foster
ed, instead of being discouraged, as
it often is, on the ground that they
cannot do the thing as well as an
older person, they would, with rare
exceptions, grow up with sufficient
knowledge of those home matters
and interest in them about which
nowadays there is so much COM
| plant that young ladies know so
little, and care less"
Mrs. Ellen Bliss Hooker, in the
same journal, writes: I'VE hear a
great deal abaut the decline inmat-
rimonial alliances, and much that
is very absurd is said and written OF
it-mainly; it is urged, that women
are not fitted for wives of men with
moderate incomes. 1t is said that
cooperative housekeeping would
insure greater degree of family
life. When from large factories,
stores, laundries, and the like, we
can so order our home living as to
lesson the expenses incident upon
the keeping up Of IL large establish
ment, the dispensing of an army OF
servants, and proportionate expen-
diturc for food, etc, men of small
capital can't afford to marry, hire
rooms and have meals served there
in for comparatively small con-
sideration. Without question many
Young men who would gladly es-
tablish homes of their own are dc
, tered from so doing by the mani
fest extravagances Gas they call it, of
the young women"
, But the writer thinks that the
Young women of this generation are
basely misjudged. Because at the
various summer resorts they lay
), aside all care, and give themselves
up to recreation, it is assumed that
they have no domesticity in their
makeup, and that the summer-day
frolic is an index of their entire
lives. Nine times in ten, if the
: truth were told, it would be found
that the young woman who is
styled so frivolous has, with her
= own dainty fingers, fashioned the
S garment which seems to the unin-
e itiated so extravagant. Young men
+ will do well to gain more informa-
ton before making rash criticisms.